Leadership Class visits with area military personnel

Editor’s note: Pfc. Kevin Ferguson is a staff writer for The Jet Stream newspaper aboard Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

The Beaufort County Senior Leadership Class of 2011 visited the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort March 23 as a part of the yearly military history and ties portion of its schedule.

According to www.beaufortseniorleadership.com, the group is open to Beaufort County residents who are a principle member of their community, who possess a high level of maturity and are worthy of a position of authority.

Chuck Lurey, the coordinator for the group, said Beaufort County Leadership is a 12-week program that takes members of Beaufort County and familiarizes them with the local area.

With the group’s mission to better know their community, it is fitting they spend a day touring military installations, given their vital role to Beaufort.

“It is to get a close-hand look at the military by the people that are supporting them,” said Lurey. “It works fantastically; [members of the group] just eat it up.”

Retired Marine Dave Collins, a member of Beaufort since 2004, said he joined the group due to a desire to know more about the county. He mentioned, though he had visited the installations prior to participating in the group, the tour was beneficial.

“The tour brought about some nostalgia, opposed to a simple visit,” he said.

The group spent the morning at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island before coming to the air station.

Lurey said the ability for the members to see recruits during the Crucible and then Marines at the air station is sort of an orientation into the Marine way of life.

Once the group arrived at the air station, they ate lunch at the Officers’ Club, and then listened to several presentations about the military’s role in the community.

First was Coast Guard Cmdr. Michael Holland, the commander of Coast Guard Deputy Sector in Charleston. Holland gave an overview of the history of the Coast Guard and its advancements to date, along with the role the Coast Guard plays throughout the states of South Carolina and Georgia.

Next were air station commanding officer Col. John Snider and public affairs officer, 1st Lt. Sharon Hyland. The two took turns explaining the past, present and future of the air station and its involvement and effect on the local community.

A question-and-answer portion followed the presentation. The inception of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and its impact on the community was a hot topic. Though there have been some concerns of noise, Harold Erickson, a member of the group and a retired Army Ranger, did not share these concerns.

“I think it is the sound of music,” Erickson said of the sound of a jet overhead. “There is a mentality today that it is racket or noise, but it truly is the sound of freedom.”

After their time at the Officers’ Club, the group boarded a bus and was taken to the ready room of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 115 for a brief of the squadron’s history and then a trip to its hangar and a chance to look inside the cockpit of an F/A-18 Hornet.

“Last year we didn’t get to sit in a ready room or look into an aircraft,” said Lurey. “The tour has been superior this year.”

For more information on tours of the air station, contact Dorothy Mack, the air station community relations coordinator, at 228-7201.